Artifact Details

Title

Catalog Number

Type

Date

Contributor

Publisher

Computer History Museum

Place of Publication

Mountain View, California

Extent

10 p.

Copyright Holder

Computer History Museum

Description

Cryptography pioneer Ralph Merkle discusses his early work at UC Berkeley and how this lead to a unique method of key exchange—the primary requirement for sending secure communications over an insecure channel and a key feature of all Internet commerce today. Merkle’s work is placed in the context of the work as extended by Martin Hellman and Whitfield Diffie of Stanford University. Merkle concludes by examining some advanced technologies for the future.